NCAA docks Miami football nine scholarships; no additional bowl ban

University Of Miami helmet lays on the field. (Eliot Schechter/ Allsport)

Chris Dufresne

It's finally over. Miami football can play the rest of the season without an NCAA cloud over its head.

Miami, 6-0 and No. 7 in the first BCS standings, can also play for this year's national title.

In a case that has taken years to process, the NCAA on Tuesday levied major sanctions on the program but fell far short of those levied on USC or Penn State.

The NCAA docked Miami football nine scholarships over the next three years but added no further bowl sanctions. The school had self-imposed a two-year bowl ban in advance of the ruling and also took other measures to mitigate the NCAA damage.

The NCAA stated in a release: "The University of Miami lacked institutional control when it did not monitor the activities of a major booster, the men’s basketball and football coaching staffs, student-athletes and prospects for a decade, according to findings by the Division I Committee on Infractions."